“Now, get going. I need hardly tell you that the Dreeghs will probably catch you. But you can’t stay here. That’s obvious.”
“Thanks!” That was all Leigh allowed himself to say. He had exploded an emotional powder keg, and he dared not tamper even a single word further. There was a tremendous psychological mystery here, but it was not for him to solve.
Suddenly shaky from realization of what was still ahead of him, he walked gingerly toward the air lock. And then — It happened!
He had a sense of unutterable nausea. There was a wild swaying through blackness and — He was standing at the paneled doorway leading from the corridor to Patricia Ungarn’s apartment. Beside him stood Hanardy. The door opened. The young woman who stood there said strangely familiar words to Hanardy, about going down to the fourth level to fix an energy screen. Then she turned to Leigh, and in a voice hard and metallic said:
“Mr. Leigh, you can come in.”
7
The crazy part of it was that he walked in with scarcely a physical tremor. A cool breeze caressed his cheeks; and there was the liltingly sweet sound of birds singing in the distance. Leigh stood stockstill for a moment after he had entered; by sheer will power he emptied the terrible daze out of his mind, and bent, mentally, into the cyclone path of complete memory. Everything was there suddenly, the way the Dreeghs had come to his hotel apartment and ruthlessly forced him to their will, the way the “blackness” room had affected him, and how the girl had spared his life.
For some reason, the whole scene with the girl had been unsatisfactory to — Jeel; and it was now, fantastically, to be repeated.
That thought ended. The entire, tremendous reality of what had happened yielded to a vastly greater fact:
There was — something — inside his head, a distinctly physical something; and in a queer, horrible, inexperienced way, his mind was instinctively fighting — it. The result was ghastly confusion. Which hurt him, not the thing.
Whatever it was, rested inside his head, unaffected by his brain’s feverish contortions, cold, aloof, watching.
Watching.
Madly, then, he realized what it was. Another mind. Leigh shrank from the thought as from the purest destroying fire. He tensed his brain. For a moment the frenzy of his horror was so great that his face twisted with the anguish of his efforts. And everything blurred.
Exhausted finally, he simply stood there. And the thing-mind was still inside his head.
Untouched.
What had happened to him?
Shakily, Leigh put his hands up to his forehead; then he felt his whole head; there was a vague idea in him that if he pressed — He jerked his hands down with an unspoken - curse. Damnation on damnation, he was even repeating the actions of this scene. He grew aware of the girl staring at him. He heard her say:
“What is the matter with you?”
It was the sound of the words, exactly the same words, that did it. He smiled wryly. His mind drew back from the abyss, where it had teetered.
He was sane again.
Gloomy recognition came then that his brain was still a long way down; sane yes, but dispirited. It was only too obvious that the girl had no memory of the previous scene, or she wouldn’t be parroting. She’d — That thought stopped, too. Because a strange thing was happening.
The mind inside him stirred, and looked through his — Leigh’s — eyes. Looked intently.
Intently.
The room and the girl in it changed, not physically, but subjectively, in what he saw, in the — details.
Details burned at him; furniture and design that a moment before had seemed a flowing, artistic whole, abruptly showed flaws, hideous errors in taste and arrangement and structure.
His gaze flashed out to the garden, and in instants tore it to mental shreds. Never in all his existence had he seen or felt criticism on such a high, devastating scale. Only — Only it wasn’t criticism. Actually. The mind was indifferent. It saw things. Automatically, it saw some of the possibilities; and by comparison the reality suffered.
It was not a matter of anything being hopelessly bad. The wrongness was frequently a subtle thing. Birds not suited, for a dozen reasons, to their environment. Shrubs that added infinitesimal discord not harmony to the superb garden.
The mind flashed back from the-garden; and this time, for the first time, studied the girl.
On all Earth, no woman had ever been so piercingly examined. The structure of her body and her face, to Leigh so finely, proudly shaped, so gloriously patrician — found low grade now.
An excellent example of low-grade development in isolation.
That was the thought, not contemptuous, not derogatory, simply an impression by an appallingly direct mind that saw-overtones, realities behind realities, a thousand facts where one showed.
There followed crystal-clear awareness of the girl’s psychology, objective admiration for the system of isolated upbringing that made Klugg girls such fine breeders; and then — Purpose!
Instantly carried out. Leigh took three swift steps toward the girl. He was aware of her snatching at the gun in her pocket, and there was the sheerest startled amazement on her face. Then he had her.
Her muscles writhed like steel springs. But they were hopeless against his superstrength, his superspeed. He tied her with some wire he had noticed in a half-opened clothes closet.
Then he stepped back, and to Leigh came the shocked personal thought of the incredible thing that had happened, comprehension that all this, which seemed so normal, was actually so devastatingly superhuman, so swift that — seconds only had passed since he came into the room.
Private thought ended. He grew aware of the mind, contemplating what it had done, and what it must do before the meteorite would be completely under control.
Vampire victory was near.
There was a phase of walking along empty corridors, down several flights of stairs. The vague, dull thought came to Leigh, his own personal thought, that the Dreegh seemed to know completely the interior of the meteorite.
Somehow, during the periods of — transition, of time manipulation, the creature-mind must have used his, Leigh’s, body to explore the vast tomb of a place thoroughly. And now, with utter simplicity of purpose — he was heading for the machine shops on the fourth level, where Professor Ungarn and Hanardy labored to put up another energy defense screen.
He found Hanardy alone, working at a lathe that throbbed — and the sound made it easy to sneak up — -
The professor was in a vast room, where great engines hummed a strange, deep tune of titanic power. He was a tall man, and his back was turned to the door as Leigh entered.
But he was immeasurably quicker than Hanardy, quicker even than the girl. He sensed danger. He whirled with a catlike agility. Literally. And succumbed instantly to muscles that could have torn him limb from limb. It was during the binding of the man’s hands that Leigh had time for an impression.
In the photographs that Leigh had seen, as he had told the Dreegh, Merla, in the hotel, the professor’s face had been sensitive, tired-looking, withal noble. He was more than that, tremendously more.
The man radiated power, as no photograph could show it, good power in contrast to the savage, malignant, immensely greater power of the Dreegh.
The sense of power faded before the aura of — weariness. Cosmic weariness. It was a lined, an amazingly lined face. In a flash, Leigh remembered what the Dreegh woman had said; and it was all there: deep-graven lines of tragedy and untold mental suffering, interlaced with a curious peacefulness, like — resignation.
On that night months ago, he had asked the Dreegh woman:
Resignation to what? And now, here in this tortured, kindly face was the answer:
Resignation to hell.
Queerly, an unexpected second answer trickled in his mind:
Morons; they’
re Galactic morons. Kluggs.
The thought seemed to have no source; but it gathered with all the fury of a storm. Professor Ungarn and his daughter were Kluggs, morons in the incredible Galactic sense. No wonder the girl had reacted like a crazy person. Obviously born here, she must have only guessed the truth in the last two months.
The I.Q. of human morons wavered between seventy-five and ninety, of Kluggs possibly between two hundred and twenty-five and, say, two hundred and forty-three.
Two hundred and forty-three. What kind of civilization was this Galactic — if Dreeghs were four hundred and — Somebody, of course, had to do the dreary, routine work of civilization; and Kluggs and Lennels and their kind were obviously elected. No wonder they looked like morons with that weight of inferiority to influence their very nerve and muscle structure. No wonder whole planets were kept in ignorance — Leigh left the professor tied hand and foot, and began to turn off power switches. Some of the great motors were slowing noticeably as he went out of that mighty engine room; the potent hum of power dimmed.
Back in the girl’s room, he entered the air lock, climbed into the small automobile spaceship — and launched into the night.
Instantly, the gleaming mass of meteorite receded into the darkness behind him. Instantly, magnetic force rays caught his tiny craft, and drew it remorselessly toward the hundred and fifty foot, cigar-shaped machine that flashed out of the darkness.
He felt the spy rays; and he must have been recognized. For another ship flashed up to claim him.
Air locks opened noiselessly — and shut. Sickly, Leigh stared at the two Dreeghs, the tall man and the tall woman; and, as from a great distance, heard himself explaining what he had done.
Dimly, hopelessly, he wondered why he should have to explain. Then he heard Jeel say:
“Merla, this is the most astoundingly successful case of hypnotism in our existence. He’s done — everything. Even the tiniest thoughts we put into his mind have been carried out to the letter. And the proof is, the screens are going down. With the control of this station, we can hold out even after the Galactic warships arrive — and fill our tankers and our energy reservoirs for ten thousand years. Do you hear, ten thousand years?”
His excitement died. He smiled with sudden, dry understanding as he looked at the woman. Then he said laconically:
“My dear, the reward is all yours. We could have broken down those screens in another twelve hours, but it would have meant the destruction of the meteorite. This victory is so much greater. Take your reporter. Satisfy your craving — while the rest - of us prepare for the occupation. Meanwhile, I’ll tie him up for you.”
Leigh thought, a cold, remote thought: The kiss of death — He shivered in sudden, appalled realization of what he had done — He lay on the couch, where Jeel had tied him. He was surprised, after a moment, to notice that, though the mind had withdrawn into the background of his brain — it was still there, cold, steely, abnormally conscious.
The wonder came: what possible satisfaction could Jeel obtain from experiencing the mortal thrill of death with him? These people were utterly abnormal, of course, but — The wonder died like dry grass under a heat ray, as the woman came into the room, and glided toward him. She smiled; she sat down on the edge of the couch.
“So here you are,” she said.
She was, Leigh thought, like a tigress. There was purpose in every cunning muscle of her long body. In surprise he saw that she had changed her dress. She wore a sleek, flimsy, sheeny, tight-fitting gown that set off in startling fashion her golden hair and starkly white face. Utterly fascinated, he watched her. Almost automatically, he said:
“Yes, I’m here.”
Silly words. But he didn’t feel silly. Tenseness came the moment he had spoken. It was her eyes that did it. For the first time since he had first seen her, her eyes struck him like a blow. Blue eyes, and steady. So steady. Not the steady frankness of honesty. But steady — like dead eyes.
A chill grew on Leigh, a special, extra chill, adding to the ice that was already there inside him; and the unholy thought came that this was a dead woman — artificially kept alive by the blood and life of dead men and women.
She smiled, but the bleakness remained in those cold fish eyes. No smile, no warmth could ever bring light to that chill, beautiful countenance. But she smiled the form of a smile, and she said:
“We Dreeghs live a hard, lonely life. So lonely that sometimes I cannot help thinking our struggle to remain alive is a blind, mad thing. We’re what we are through no fault of our own. It happened during an interstellar flight that took place a million years ago — “
She stopped, almost hopelessly. “It seems longer. It must be longer. I’ve really lost track.”
She went on, suddenly grim, as if the memory, the very telling, brought a return of horror: “We were among several thousand holidayers who were caught in the gravitational pull of a sun, afterward called the Dreegh sun.
“Its rays, immensely dangerous to human life, infected us all. It was discovered that only continuous blood transfusions, and the life force of other human beings, could save us. For a while we received donations; then the government decided to have us destroyed as hopeless incurables.
“We were all young, terribly young and in love with life; some hundreds of us had been expecting the sentence, and we still had friends in the beginning. We escaped, and we’ve been fighting ever since to stay alive”
And still he could feel no sympathy. It was odd, for all the thoughts she undoubtedly wanted him to have, came. Picture of a bleak, endless existence in spaceships, staring out into the perpetual night; all life circumscribed by the tireless, abnormal needs of bodies gone mad from ravenous disease.
It was all there, all the emotional pictures. But no emotions came. She was too cold; the years and the devil’s hunt had stamped her soul and her eyes and her face.
And besides, her body seemed tenser now, leaning toward him, bending forward closer, closer, till he could hear her slow, measured breathing. Even her eyes suddenly held the vaguest inner light — her whole being quivered with the chill tensity of her purpose; when she spoke, she almost breathed the words:
“I want you to kiss me, and don’t be afraid. I shall keep you alive for days, but I must have response, not passivity. You’re a bachelor, at least thirty. You won’t have any more morals about the matter than I. But you must let your whole body yield.”
He didn’t believe it. Her face hovered six inches above his; and there was such a ferocity of suppressed eagerness in her that it could only mean death.
Her lips were pursed, as if to suck, and they quivered with a strange, tense, trembling desire, utterly unnatural, almost obscene. Her nostrils dilated at every breath — and no normal woman who had kissed as often as she must have in all her years could feel like that, if that was all she expected to get.
“Quick!” she said breathlessly. “Yield, yield!”
Leigh scarcely heard; for that other mind that had been lingering in his brain, surged forward in its incredible way. He heard himself say:
“I’ll trust your promise because I can’t resist such an appeal. You can kiss your head off. I guess I can stand it — “
There was a blue flash, an agonizing burning sensation that spread in a flash to every nerve of his body.
The anguish became a series of tiny pains, like small needles piercing a thousand bits of his flesh. Tingling, writhing a little, amazed that he was still alive, Leigh opened his eyes.
He felt a wave of purely personal surprise.
The woman lay slumped, lips half twisted off of his, body collapsed hard across his chest. And the mind, that blazing mind was there, watching — as the tall figure of the Dreegh man sauntered into the room, stiffened, and then darted forward.
He jerked her limp form into his arms. There was the same kind of blue flash as their lips
met, from the man to the woman. She stirred finally, moaning. He shook her brutally.
“You wretched fool!” he raged. “How did you let a thing like that happen? You would have been dead in another minute, if I hadn’t come along.”
“I — don’t — know.” Her voice was thin and old. She sank down to the floor at his feet, and slumped there like a tired old woman. Her blond hair straggled, and looked curiously faded. “I don’t know, Jeel. I tried to get his life force, and he got mine instead. He — “
She stopped. Her blue eyes widened. She staggered to her feet. “Jeel, he must be a spy. No human being could do a thing like that to me.
“Jeel” — there was sudden terror in her voice — “Jeel, get out of this room. Don’t you realize? He’s got my energy in him. He’s lying there now, and whatever has control of him has my energy to work with — “
“All right, all right.” He patted her fingers. “I assure you he’s only a human being. And he’s got your energy. You made a mistake, and the flow went the wrong way. But it would take much more than that for anyone to use a human body successfully against us. So — “
“You don’t understand!” Her voice shook. “Jeel, I’ve been cheating. I don’t know what got into me, but I couldn’t get enough life force. Every time I was able, during the four times we stayed on Earth, I sneaked out.
“I caught men on the street. I don’t know exactly how many because I dissolved their bodies after I was through with them. But there were dozens. And he’s got all the energy I collected, enough for scores of years, enough - for — don’t you see? — enough for them.”
“My dear!” The Dreegh shook her violently, as a doctor would an hysterical woman. “For a million years, the great ones of Galactic have ignored us and — “
Adventures in Time and Space Page 82
